Doctor Who drabbles
by incandescens
Summary: Doctor Who drabbles, dealing with various different incarnations of the Doctor. Some serious, some not.
1. 9th Doctor: the blood's compulsory

**the blood's compulsory**

He's got the rhetoric, no question about it; none of his incarnations has ever been short of a quick word or a facile explanation.

There's the love. He must have had that. Must have it. It wouldn't hurt so much otherwise. Day by day through the universe, with different friends at his side, changing as quickly as the leaves, fresh, experienced, fallen, gone.

But, looking at his hands, seeing the flicker of chaotic light that marks his veins and foreshadows the body's imminent ruin, hearing his heart hammer faster and faster towards an ending, he is reminded; the blood's compulsory.

---


	2. 9th Doctor: Hidden

**Hidden**

They'd been stripped and locked in together. The triumphant buzzing of their captors as they dropped the Doctor's sonic screwdriver outside the cell bars sounded positively vindictive.

"That whole Prince of Darkness thing?" Jack asked, once they were alone.

"Mistaken identity," the Doctor said hastily. "Okay! Escape plans. Rose?"

"Er, pretend to be sick and lure them in and then jump them?" Rose offered.

"Mm-hm. Jack?"

"Well." There were clinking noises. "I've got this laser pistol, this sonic rifle, this set of grenades . . ."

"Fantastic!" The Doctor blinked. "Rose, why are you hiding in the corner and whimpering?"

---


	3. 9th Doctor: silence

**silence **

There is no silence in the TARDIS. Where there is machinery, there is noise; where there is no machinery, there is still the consciousness of the TARDIS itself, the burning core of energy that lies behind the console, that threads through the walls, and that will not leave him in peace. However fast he runs to escape his ghosts, they keep pace with him and whisper his name.

Even in the Zero Room, he hears the double pulse of a Gallifreyan heart.

Human voices can drown that for a little while. Human babbling, human lives, are his silence, his salvation.

---


	4. Romana: a lean and hungry look

**a lean and hungry look**

The Time Lord breathed a sigh of relief. "And after all that dreadful work you had to do with the Doctor, I'm sure we can offer you a nice peaceful position -- tending infants, perhaps, or Archives . . ."

"Actually," the young woman said cheerfully, "I'm thinking of Senior Administration, working towards the Presidency."

The Time Lord sputtered.

"You do know the word blackmail, I hope?" she enquired pleasantly. "The Doctor's Tardis had all sorts of interesting old unexpurgated files."

"But -- you -- impossible --"

"President Romanadvoratrelundar." She smiled. "I like the sound of it. Don't you?"

---


	5. 9th Doctor meets Sherlock Holmes: I

**On the adventure of the Ninefold Man  
**  
I write this account at Holmes' request, knowing that it will shortly join others sealed for posterity. In the interests of the nation, and for the sake of Captain Lethbridge-Stewart of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, I will endeavour to describe the affair of the Ninefold Man and the shrunken corpses.

"Visitors, Watson, while we were out!" Holmes exclaimed, indicating the marks upon the steps of 221B. "A man perhaps six feet in height, accompanied by a young woman several inches shorter, who I suspect may be American from her lack of dexterity in handling her skirts . . ."


	6. 3rd Doctor: Taroticum: The Devil

**Taroticum: The Devil**

"It was a mistake in translation," the Master explained, covering the three of them with his gun. "I'm surprised the Doctor never told you."

But Jo was already putting two and two together. Her fists knotted. "All those times," she said quietly. "All that work. And you never told me."

The Doctor shrugged, shame-faced. "I couldn't --"

"You'll be coming with me, Miss Grant," the Master interrupted. "The Doctor will have to do without his TARDIS, and without his replacement for it."

"I don't understand," the Brigadier repeated.

The Master indicated the TARDIS. "Tea And Relative Dimension in Space."


	7. 7th Doctor: such a pretty nose

**such a pretty nose**

"Oh dear," said the Doctor. He qualified his statement with an, "Oh dear me."

Ace trailed a few steps behind him, trying unsuccessfully not to look guilty. The great statue's shadow fell over them both, providing welcome shelter from the blazing sun. "It did squash the Dalek, Doctor," she pointed out. "Splat. No Dalek, no problem."

"It did," the Doctor agreed.

"And maybe nobody will notice," she added hopefully.

The Doctor looked from the piece of rock, half-buried in the sand, to the newly remodelled face of the Sphinx. "And it was such a pretty nose, too," he said mournfully.

---


	8. 9th Doctor: rosa mundi

**rosa mundi**

It's necessary for him to remember the small things. Little things like single lives are easy to forget, and add up so very quickly. Whether it's right or not to limit himself, to weigh single lives against whole worlds, is beside the point. He has chosen to care. He must remember to do so.

There have been times when he's wanted to be the manipulator, the player of games. This isn't one of them.

That's why he invites her into the TARDIS. Ah, Rose, sweet Rose, rose of earth, rose of the world, rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember.

---


	9. 9th Doctor meets Sherlock Holmes: II

**unfortunately the impossible is true**

Doctor,

Am writing this from prison cell in Pentonville due to inability of Sherlock Holmes to grasp that mysterious tracks in corridor due to Dalek treads, that our disappearance and reappearance in the locked room was assisted by Tardis, and that you are in a weird Time Lord coma and not actually dead. He keeps on talking about logic and when eliminated impossible, etc.

I figure that if I write this now, you'll read it in the future and then come back and sort things out. Right?

Am in fifth cell on left.

Please don't take too long about it.

---


	10. 9th Doctor: looking for whenever

**looking for whenever**

"That's never Damascus," Rose said, looking at the blur of images in the TARDIS viewscreen.

The Doctor shrugged. "It is, you know. It's Damascus whenever -- look, there's it being founded, and there's an invasion, and there's the bare ground before it, and there's the bare ground after it . . ."

"So which of them is the real Damascus?" Rose asked.

The Doctor leaned forward. "Damascus is four-dimensional, Rose. Three dimensions in space, and a fourth in time."

"But the only way you can see it like that is from the outside," Rose pointed out.

The Doctor sighed. "Yes."

---


	11. Ace: an Exalted crossover

**comparing notes**

They'd already finished several bottles of wine. The fire was burning low.

Ace counted off on her fingers. "Eaten by vampires . . ."

"Assassinated by Cynis," the Roseblack countered.

"Mm." Ace frowned. "Infected by fungoid alien thingies. Died burning them."

The Roseblack shrugged. "Died on the front lines trying to prove himself. He really didn't have to."

"They never do." Ace stared into the fire. "And still --"

"You're worried about that little savant of yours, aren't you?"

"Mm." She shrugged. "Not _worried_ worried, but people keep on dying . . ."

"Don't worry," the Roseblack advised her. "It only happens to the ones you love."


	12. 7th Doctor: an Exalted crossover

**Signs and Portents**

"What does it mean," asked the young Sidereal, "when Chejop Kejak discourses to us about the Weave of Fate?"

"It means," said his mentor, "that he instructs his juniors."

"And what does it mean when Chejop Kejak's brow furrows?"

"It means that the troubles of the world bear upon his shoulders."

"And what," asked the novice, "does it mean when all the alarms on the Loom go off, and Chejop Kejak jumps up and down, screams, tears his hair, and orders a general alert in all potential realms?"

"It means," said his mentor, "that the Doctor is up to something."


	13. 9th Doctor: definitely not sonic

**definitely not sonic**

Sweat ran down his brow. Oil trickled over his fingers.

"You're getting it all over your jacket," Rose pointed out.

"It's leather," the Doctor stated dismissively, "it can take it." He thrust himself into the bowels of the TARDIS. "Hammer," he instructed.

Rose passed him the wooden mallet.

"Sonic screwdriver."

She passed him the small metal cylinder.

"Screwdriver."

"Which one?"

"Oh, come on -- half fill the glass with ice, add vodka, then orange juice --"

"Doctor!" Rose exclaimed. "You can't go fixing the ship drunk."

"It's not for me. Sometimes the old girl needs a bit of bribery."


	14. 9th Doctor: I might have expected it

**I might have expected it**

There is a point at which he finally gives up on people -- even his oldest friends, his oldest enemies. Mortal sin by intent and by commission, and so many times.

_Murderer_, a recent part of him says coldly. _Prattling jackanapes_, an older part adds. _Old friend_, whisper the shadows of his most distant past.

Of all the things that Gallifrey could leave to the Universe, the Master is one of the worst.

Yet still, looking out the starry darkness beyond the viewscreen, he remembers a sallow bearded face, burning eyes, quick gloved hands; and he thinks, _He'll be back._


	15. Rose: lost in translation

**lost in translation**

Rose has always taken the Doctor's comments about "stupid apes" as a joke in rather poor taste. But she put up with them because friends can be like that. Right?

She coped with the whole translation thing without complaining too much because it saved her having to learn the languages. They all think in English anyhow, don't they?

When she saw the TARDIS opening to reveal its heart, she'd thought of convenient words for telepathy. Vulcan mindmeld thingy. You know?

When she felt her mind falling apart as time and space burned through her, she didn't have words for it.


End file.
